Lifestyle

《The Wines of the World》Japanese Highball Whisky

For this holiday season, allow me to introduce you to a very popular way of drinking whisky in Japan – Highball - a simple-to-make party drink.

The cocktail Highball has been around since the beginning of the last century. Traditionally, it was not limited to using whiskey as a base, but the party drink was popularized by the mother company of Yamazaki, Suntory.

Japanese Highball is very easy to make, all you need to prepare are a tall glass, whisky, soda water and a lot of ice cubes. The ice cubes must be rather large, or they will melt too quickly and affect the taste.

Firstly, fill the entire glass with ice and water, then drain the iced water, this is done to keep the glass freezing cold.

Fill 70% of the glass with ice, pour in the whisky and stir, add some soda water, and you now have a glass of Highball. Some people like to add some mint leaves as garnish, which also makes the body even fresher.

The ideal ratio of whisky and soda water is 1:2, but you can adjust this ratio based on your own personal preference.

In fact, the taste of Japanese whisky is relatively sweeter and fresher, which is the most suitable for making Highball.

The cocktail has currently become a comfort drink for many Japanese people, and it can be found on most restaurants’ wine menu.

The reason for Highball’s wide spread popularity has a historical factor. During Japan’s post-war era in the 50s when the country was poor, Suntory had already been promoting this way of drinking whisky, making it affordable for the general public. At that time, Suntory recommended the ‘year-less’ whisky Kakubin to make Highball.

In recent years, Suntory is attempting to break into the women’s market and has again begun to promote the drinking of Highball vigorously, marketing the idea that women too can enjoy whisky.

In 2015, Suntory launched a new product - the grain whisky "Chita", and a large quantity of advertisements have been placed, recommending to use it to make Highball.

Give Highball a try this holiday season!

Next time, I will talk about the BMW and Mercedes of Japanese whisky - Suntory and Nikka.